From the Observer archive
A regular series of republished journalism from the Observer Magazine
A celebration of the genius of the early photographer Nadar, 1976
The pioneering portrait master was a superb chronicler of 19th-century Parisian life
A meeting with Liza Minnelli, 1989
Promoting her album with the Pet Shop Boys, the actor and singer was in a liberated mood when she granted the Observer an audience in Athens
The big split: why divorce rates were soaring in 1976
After the Divorce Reform Act a decade earlier, women were telling their husbands, ‘I’ve had enough!’
How the other half lives, as reported in 1989
The Observer looked at Britain’s 100 hightest and lowest paid jobs, and found great inequalities at the end of the 80s
The British experience of the Mediterranean, 1976
Was this the reason why we set up the Common Market?
What happened when Françoise Sagan met Brigitte Bardot in 1976
The legendary novelist interviewed the famouse French actor for the Observer – their conversation was not what you might have guessed
‘Painting is dead’: celebrating the 150th anniversary of photography in 1989
Diverse, sensational and featuring ghosts, the earliest pictures were not as we might imagine them
What tickled the tastebuds of the gourmands in 1968?
Smoked eek, brandied apricots, tinned quail… there was a lot to swallow when two epicurists met in the 60s
The unlikeliest sporting superfans, from 1976
Why did a City typist travel miles to follow her favourite wrestlers, what was it about Muhammad Ali that Peter O’Toole liked quite so very much?
How bright were the British in 1989?
The Observer turned quizmaster to find out who knew what
Casting a spell: meeting three witches in 1968
Despite what we might have assumed, it wasn’t all about the sex
Return to Radwinter, from the Domesday Book to 1985
The Observer had been to the quiet Essex village before, in 1965. What had changed, what changes lay in wait?
Why Britain was still Great in 1984
The Observer found 99 good reasons, from Pimm’s to pubs to panto dames
Hollywood celebrates its own first century – back in 1987
Tinseltown has always enjoyed the spotlight, but how did those who knew it best capture the first 100 years?
Longing for a baby in 1971
Three couples told the stories of their struggles to become parents
Gossipy insights into the marriage of Charles and Diana, 1991
To a seasoned royal-watcher like Ingrid Seward, the core incompatibilities were already clear to see
When Disney lost its way – scenes from the studio, 1978
The famous studio was attempting a revival of fortune with The Black Cauldron, based on Welsh myths
Tilda Swinton’s other-worldly appeal, as reported in 1987
The actor makes an instant impression at the age of 26
Doing time: interviews with repeat offenders, 1969
For many prisoners, jail had come to be their home
The last of England’s grand butlers, 1971
As Edward Howes retired from his career as a manservant, so too the country’s social order was changing
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